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“And birds wouldn’t fall out of the sky if I pissed rainbows,” Cairo replied. “How much other shit I’m not responsible for do you want to drop on me?”
His spoon clattered in his bowl. “You’re responsible for this! My daughter is upstairs broken and sobbing because you run around this town acting like the big, tough thug and decent people pay the price.”
“Boys, please,” Nora cried.
I sank in my seat, holding Cairo’s hand under the table.
“I knew it was a mistake to let her near you.”
“Real nice, Isaac.” An amused twist hung on his lips. “Take shots at me while I’m eating my soup. List your regrets at not doing a better job fucking up my family. After this, you plan on taking your red face and puffed chest to the Crows, and give it back to them ten times worse? No? Because I am.”
Cairo punched the table and toppled my wineglass.
“You can come at me for being a shitty older brother, but at least I’m not her sniveling, candy-ass father. I’ll make damn sure no one touches her again.” He leaned over the table. “And I’ve got a lesson for you too, next time you get in my face, Stepdaddy.”
We were out the next day.
Just as well, because we’re all-hands-on-deck installing new security in the Bedlam House, the mayor’s house, and Jacques’s mother’s house. Judge Stone and Mayor Creed both lived alone, and the Crows proved they didn’t know their limits.
I padded over to Roan, still wearing the ears from my latest trip to Arsenio’s house. He liked doing it there because there was more room to walk his pet.
“What’s this?” I picked up the notepad at his feet. Twenty or so names were written down. Jeremy Ellis at the top. “This isn’t a hit list, is it?”
“In a way, I’m writing all the people who want me dead. I keep it close for when another name pops in my head.”
“Roan, there are a lot of names here. All of these people can’t really want to stab you. What did you do to them?”
“Nicolas Everide. He got big and loud about refusing to pay and tried to get everyone on his block to join in. I threatened to tell his firm he was missing a few credits on his transcript, and that law degree in his office is fake. Plus, I fucked his wife.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Dare I ask about anyone else on the list?”
“You could. It would help me narrow it down if I got an outside perspective. Which of these people have I pissed off enough to kill me, and which just want to break my legs behind the Roadhouse?”
“Okay, I’ll help.” I dropped down next to him. “You were stabbed before you betrayed Micah and told the town his brother was screwing him. We can take them off the list.”
“I know it wasn’t them personally, but it could still be a Crow. We just found out he was stashing more of them in HC.”
“That’s true,” I muttered. “But why would Jeremy have come after you then?”
He flipped through his toolbox. Handy Roan was a sight to see, savor, and lock away for the next go with my vibrator—a gift from Roan.
He tied his wild waves back, letting the world fall into those swimmable pools unobstructed. A torn-sleeve shirt gifted me his muscles rippling as he drove the screws home, and every few seconds he smirked at me as though he was reading my mind.
“I’m an attractive target to take out first, honey lips.”
My face heated. It was my second pair of lips that Roan swore tasted like honey.
“I’ve got access to everyone’s records. The Crows included.”
“Did they know that at the time?”
He shook his head. “Can’t say exactly what they know, but it’s too much.”
We went through the list together, Roan adding more along the way. I eliminated a few people based on how long ago he wronged them. More than a year seemed a long time to wait to kill someone who walked around unguarded.
“Brooks works in the administration building,” I said. “He would’ve gotten to you before now if he was still upset with you for beating up his brother.”
“He was. I heard him shouting about it when the mob came for us.”
I paused with the eraser hovering over the name. “Never mind. We need to talk to him.”
“What about your psychopath? Any closer to finding out who Blake Jensen is?”
I hesitated. I hated lying to the guys, but I would not walk into another room and find Arsenio, Cairo, Jacques, Legend, or Roan tied to a chair, an arrow aimed at their chest. Everyone I cared about was under attack, it was safer for them that the Letter Man believed they weren’t included.
“Maybe,” I said. “I found out Cavendish volunteered at Westchester Youth Center. They don’t give out information about minors, so that’s as far as I got.”
